Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

no more ghosts

i used to be haunted by the pastlet it cripple my futureall too consumedby the mistakesi made,but you taught methat sometimes you have to let goin order to gain;it was only when i succumbed to the thoughtyou were gone that i foundhappiness againmy novel was published,and i don't know if i would have pushed myselfhalf as hard as i didif i kept chasing after the carrots you hungso minute and small;doesn't mean that you were right in what you didor i'll ever condone itbut i forgive it because it had to happenso i could grow—doesn't mean that sometimes i still don't hate youfor it, that sometimes i would love to knockyour teeth down your throatfor profaning the name of love with lust;but i'm a bigger person than thatso i go my wayhappy to be free of your gilded cage and your torturedsoul so egocentric and cruel.

the perfect prescription

you're a liarand a fool,but one day you'll get yourcomeuppance for all theflowers you stole;one day you'll dance on the daggersedge you shoved me throughand she'll leave you bleedingthe way you did memaybe then your laughter will die beforeit reaches your throat—you're a parasite,and i thought no medication would cureme of all your ills;but it seems the perfect prescriptionwas found in sunshine, driving hard to follow my dreams,and in letting go.

you're not strong

when i was pooryou left me laying on the groundwhen i was starvingyou offered no food,but when i had my flowers you had no problem without hesitation you took them all;it's not something i can get back,and i know you thinki'm still mournful of my one-sided unrequited lovethat you only ever returned to me in lust;but i am older and wiser now—i will not be vulnerable to you twiceshould you come around hereagaini will feed you with every morsel of glass youshoved down my throat, with every illusion you insisted was truth;with all the ambrosia i coughed up for the godsbecause it was untrueall of this will be your glory—i had to rise from my ashes once more to die to who i was and become a stronger flameit's only fair that you should have to dothe same,but something tells me you're not strongenough.